- Ever had a conversation like this with one of your kids?
Uncle Eric, when are we leaving for school?
Well, when do you want to leave?
Um…I’m supposed to be at school for practice at 7:30.
Quick glance at clock. 7:26 a.m. Hmm.
And I was supposed to know this exactly how?
I guess I forgot to tell you. I didn’t notice what time it was. (This from the only 15 year old boy in existence who looks at his wristwatch every ten minutes to make sure he’s on schedule.) - As we pulled into the school parking lot at 7:45, I say to the nephew as he gets out of the car, You’re gonna blame this on me, aren’t you? He grinned and replied, You know I’d never do that. Translation: You are so blamed for this.
- As we pulled away and headed for the next dropoff point, I asked the niece, sitting in the passenger seat, You’d blame me for this, wouldn’t you? She smiled sweetly and said, simply, Yes.
- Well, what good is an uncle if you can’t blame him every now and then for your own sins? I’ve read the job description.
- I voted yesterday, along with a steady streams of fellow citizens, 90% of whom were women, 100% of whom had grim expressions on their faces. I have no explanation for that phenomenon. For all I know, I had an equally grim expression on my face. However, I always try to smile at the election workers, so they won’t judge me too harshly for never carrying my voter registration card. In Texas, we can vote using a driver’s license as identification, but it makes the guy look me up on the computer to confirm my address and precinct. I suspect they get tired of that. But, really…expecting me to actually plan my voting activity in advance?
- I suspect that we Americans take for granted the relative ease of casting our ballots. Nobody shot at me yesterday. I didn’t have to look around for suspicious vans idling near the polling place with no drivers inside. I’m pretty sure no one was surreptitiously taking my photograph in order to better identify me with my ballot, so my name can be placed on The List for Future “Consideration.” Yep, we’ve got it pretty cush. Easy to take for granted, isn’t it?
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LOL … thank you, Eric, for a chuckle to begin the day!
Joe Scruggs once had a song called – I think – “Oh, By the Way,” that captured the wonderfully awful and awfully wonderful process that is caring for kids. I think your story would make a good, added verse.
Don’t worry, Eric. If you want to threatened and attacked in America for expressing your political views, just put up a large “Bush Cheney ’04” sign.
Then some Kerry supporter will burn an 8 foot by 8 foot swastika into your lawn.
Or, maybe they’ll start shooting into your house the way they did into the Knoxville TN Bush Cheney campaign headquarters. It’s also happened in Florida and West Virginia.
Election violence? Maybe not in Midland (yet), but it happens.
Well at least you heard back from the Cryptic British inquirers. They didn’t have the good manners to tell us to buzz off.